Even doctor gets dengue

A doctor, four nurses and two cleaning staff at the city-run Tarakan Hospital in West Jakarta are among the latest dengue fever patients to be treated at the hospital, an official said on Tuesday.

Dr. Atiyah, head of the Tarakan hospital's treatment unit, said they were infected by the dengue virus while treating the increasing number of dengue fever patients in the hospital.

"This is the sort of risk that we must face as hospital workers," she said.

The hospital employees infected by the virus are physician Endang, four nurses -- Gunawan, Karna Yudi, Tutik and Ninuk -- and two cleaning workers: Karna and Alim.

Atiyah said the hospital management had distributed food supplements and mosquito-repellent lotion to hospital staff to prevent them from being infected by the virus.

The hospital is treating 119 dengue patients on Tuesday.

Atiyah said the number of patients could still increase, while many of the current inpatients have to be treated in the hospital's corridors and mosque due to the lack of space in the wards.

Therefore, she said, the hospital was preparing a large additional room which could accommodate up to 25 patients.

She also said 30 nursing students from a number of schools had been drafted into the hospital to help the dengue patients.

In the last major dengue outbreak in 1998, a Jakarta Health Agency survey found that the greatest number of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes was found in hospitals. -- ID Nugroho